Goalie Ilya Sorokin is unquestionably the Islanders’ MVP so far this season.
But leading scorer Bo Horvat’s injury absence is certainly reinforcing his value to the team’s success. The Islanders’ offense, their power play and penalty kill all have suffered without the top-six center.
The Islanders, who did not practice on Wednesday after returning home early in the morning from Detroit, likely will have to figure out how to play without Horvat again when they face the Western Conference-worst Canucks on Friday night at UBS Arena and the Eastern Conference-worst Sabres on Saturday in Buffalo.
At worst, the Islanders need to tread water until Horvat returns. The schedule certainly gives them a break as Tuesday’s 3-2 road loss to the Red Wings started a stretch of just five games over 14 days.
Not that coach Patrick Roy wants to hear about injury excuses. After all, his club has so far prospered despite season-ending injuries to top-six wing Kyle Palmieri (left knee) and defenseman Alexander Romanov (right shoulder) and recently went 4-1-0 without top-six wing Jonathan Drouin (lower body) and 4-3-1 with third-line center Jean-Gabriel Pageau (upper body) missing.
“This is the quality of this team, we’re not looking for excuses after a game,” Roy said. “We focus on our game and what we have to do and stay in the present moment. It happens to every team to miss a quality player during the course of the season. We’re missing three. But, hey, stay in the present moment. We want to give ourselves a chance.”
The Islanders (19-12-3) have split their first two games since Horvat went down awkwardly, his left ankle bending the wrong way, in Thursday’s 5-2 win over the visiting Ducks. They eked out a 3-2 shootout win over the Lightning on Saturday on just 17 shots, including being outshot 17-1 in the second period, to close out a 3-0-0 homestand and give them six wins in seven matches.
But the cracks showed more against the Red Wings as the Islanders mustered 18 shots, could not establish a consistent forecheck, turned the puck over too often in the neutral zone and allowed Alex DeBrincat’s two power-play goals in the third period on the Red Wings’ only man-advantages.
Mathew Barzal’s trio with Emil Heineman and Drouin was the Islanders’ lone consistent line as neither rookie Cal Ritchie’s trio with Anthony Duclair and rookie Max Shabanov nor Pageau’s usually trusty trio with Anders Lee and Simon Holmstrom generated enough of a push. Casey Cizikas with fourth-liners Kyle MacLean and Marc Gatcomb were not their usual persistent selves in the offensive zone.
The power play went 0-for-1 against the Red Wings with just one shot as, without Horvat and his quick release available either in the slot or the right circle, Barzal and Matthew Schaefer mostly played catch with each other.
And, on the Red Wings’ power plays, DeBrincat did his best Alex Ovechkin imitation by beating Sorokin twice on rising shots from the left circle. The Red Wings were successful in getting the puck side-to-side to create shooting lanes.
It stood out because the Islanders’ penalty kill had been 17-for-18 over the previous seven games.
“I don’t think we need to make too big a deal,” said Heineman, who logged 1:50 of shorthanded time but was not on the ice for either of DeBrincat’s goals. “We know our way of playing it and we have a strong belief in our way to kill penalties. We need to restart and get back to it in the next game.”
Perhaps some of the Islanders’ troubles against the Red Wings could be chalked up to rust after two straight days off. Their team holiday party with their families was on Sunday and they opted not to skate on Monday before flying to Detroit.
“The schedule is very tough for everyone,” Roy said. “We knew giving two days, short term, might be a little tough on us but we believe it’s going to benefit us along the way.”
It’s fair to consider that a factor.
But not having Horvat, who leads the Islanders with 19 goals and 31 points in 32 games and is tied for the team lead with five-power-play goals, is what sticks out most.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.